New Year Resolutions? A child-friendly start to 2017…
Happy New Year readers…
Yes it’s that time of year again when we all reflect and 
decide on our new year resolutions or you may hear some saying “New year, new me.” Well our advice is to ‘keep being you, being great!’ 2016 was a great year for child friendly Leeds with more partners sharing our ambition, new ambassadors and ending with our international conference in November leading to recognition worldwide!
New year resolutions are usually a set of new goals and ambitions made at the start of the new year (after eating loads of Christmas food and reflecting on the past year). Resolutions are frustrating because they’re an ‘all or nothing’ approach to accomplishing goals.
But making positive changes in your life isn’t about the end result, it’s about the process. We decided to put together some healthy advice and child-friendly resolutions you can share with children and young people. This is even harder for children because it takes a lot of focus and perseverance, a bit like eating only one chocolate from the advent calendar! Motivation, the ‘can-do’ attitude is the key and’thumbs up’ always helps! Nevertheless self-improvement is also a really good skill to encourage and one that will help your kids throughout life. You can find some fun resources online such as these worksheets from Activity Village and it’s more likely that children and young people are likely to stick to their new goals and practices if they come up with them.
I found these fantastic five top tips to get you started:
- Resolutions are more likely to be met if they come from the child themselves, so see what they can think of! It will help to talk through their ideas to come up with one achievable goal.
- Make a whole family resolution – for example, everyone could aim to eat vegetables at dinner time, do ten minutes of exercise each day, or limit themselves to a certain amount of screen time.
- Keep each other in check – It’s harder to forget if someone’s giving you a nudge now and then – and your kids will love reminding you not to have that extra biscuit with your tea.
- Lead by example – set your own goal (or make a resolution for each other) to aim for, but own up if you struggle. It’s good for your child to see how you deal with your own hurdles along the way, so they can learn to cope with their own.
- Use S.M.A.R.T. goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-based) to help keep everyone motivated! An example of some healthy new year resolutions is below using the SMART goals.
Let us know what your new year resolutions are and share this if you found it useful 🙂
